History of Peanut Butter

Peanuts first appeared in history as far back as 950 BC in South America. The Incas were known to have made peanuts into paste during this time. Peanuts were even found in the mummies of Peru! Peanuts then traveled to Africa via the early explorers of South America in the 1400’s. Africans were known for putting peanuts in a stew once they were ground up. Then, it was traded to Spain and eventually made it’s way to the American Colonies.

Once in America, peanuts were grown in North Carolina as early as 1818, and in Virginia in the 1840’s. In the 1890’s George Washington Carver used the peanut as a replacement crop when the cotton crops were wiped out by weevils. His research at the Alabama Tuskegee Institute lead him to find over 300 uses for peanuts. He is known as the Father of the Peanut Industry.

The Peanut Butter as we know it today was first discovered by a doctor in St. Louis who was looking for a protein substitute for poor people with bad teeth. This doctor originally put the peanuts through a meat grinder to form a paste. Dr. John Kellog, along with his brother, patented the peanut butter process in 1895. Peanut butter was officially introduced to the public at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904.

During the Depression years, peanut butter demand continued to grow as an alternative good source of protein and as a great ingredient for the candy industry that blossomed during this time. It was during this period that the Boyer Brothers invented the Mallo Cup, and soon after added the Peanut Butter Cup and the Smoothie Cup (our butterscotch coated peanut Butter cup) to their product line.